Open Diary: Maguire immersing himself in first Major

22-year-old Alex Maguire found himself sandwiched between Open champions and fellow Irishmen Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy in the Champions' area of the clubhouse locker room. 

MAJOR DEBUT: 22-year-old Meath man Alex Maguire makes his Major debut at The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. Pic: Thos Caffrey / Golffile

Irish international amateur Alex Maguire continues to immerse himself in The Open Championship vibe as he prepares to make his major championship debut at Royal Liverpool tomorrow morning.

The Irish Examiner relayed the 22-year-old’s tale of his arrival at the Hoylake links on Sunday and finding he had been given a perch, as the winner of this year’s R&A St Andrews Links Trophy, in the Champions’ area of the clubhouse locker room, sandwiched between Open champions and fellow Irishmen Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy.

Today brings word of an eventful haircut for the Laytown & Bettystown golfer.

“The locker is definitely the coolest thing (this week), seeing it on the first day and then Shane and Rory were in there today at the same time. I got a haircut today and Jon Rahm was right beside me.” 

Maguire, however, thought better of inviting the Masters champion and world number three for a round at his home track in Co. Louth.

“I think he’d drive every green,” the Meathman said, “I don’t think the course is long enough for him.

“Just seeing these guys and rubbing shoulders with them is good enough for me.”

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The Wirral peninsula may occupy a relatively small corner of north-west England but there is a golf club other than Royal Liverpool that can claim a place in the great history of the game.

Less than eight miles along the Irish Sea coastline of the peninsula from the venue playing host to this week’s 151st Open Championship, lies the links at Wallasey, laid out by Old Tom Morris, and whose golf club proudly calls itself “The Home of Stableford”.

It was at Wallasey that Dr Frank Barney Gorton Stableford, a retired former army surgeon, devised what has become the world’s most popular points scoring system. The Stableford system was created in 1931 and borne of its creator’s frustration at playing links golf in strong winds against par, or bogey as it was known at the time.

"I was practising on the second fairway at Wallasey Golf Club one day in the latter part of 1931 when the thought ran through my mind that many players in competitions got very little fun since they tore up their cards after playing only a few holes and I wondered if anything could be done about it," the good doctor wrote in a letter that is now framed and hangs in the Wallasey clubhouse close to a portrait of a stately grey-haired gentleman with a handlebar moustache.

The first Stableford competition played was at Wallasey on May 16, 1932 though alas its creator, a single-digit handicapper, is said to have never won a tournament using the system carrying his name.

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A Royal Liverpool member since the age of seven, Matt Jordan watched in awe as Tiger Woods tamed his home course to win The Open in 2006 and was back again in 2014 to see Rory McIlroy add his name to the Hoylake honour roll.

Tomorrow morning the 27-year-old former Walker Cup player and current world number 326 will be up bright and early to hit the first tee shot of the 151st Open and begin his bid to add his own name to the illustrious list of Royal Liverpool winners.

It would make for a story of fairytale proportions it the local lad who came through final qualifying at West Lancashire to take his place among the world’s elite though Jordan would not be the first member from this host club to lift the Claret Jug. That claim goes to 1897 winner Harold Hilton, who was born just down the coast in the Dee Estuary village of West Kirby. 

Hilton had won The Open at Muirfield in 1892, becoming the first Champion Golfer to win the oldest major over 72 holes and he entered the record books five years later when claiming his second Claret Jug as the first English golfer to win the championship on his home course.